Always once a month
by Naoki Ichigo
Summary: Once a month a little group of gamers gathered in the little Internet Café across of team Excellent Era's club building to have a training session with a dear friend of theirs. [AllYe; All&Ye]


On a warm evening one day in July, she was watching her Kdrama as usually, as a man stepped inside the Internet Café in which she was working. Someone entering the Café was nothing unusually, so she first didn't pay much attention. If that person wanted a computer and use the internet, he had to come to the reception desk, show his ID and wait for her to tell him which station was for him. If he only was here to pick someone else up, then there was no reason for her to do anything at all. However, only a few seconds after the man had entered the Internet Café he already stood in front of the reception desk. Reluctantly she looked up from the computer and gave the man her brightest smile. This smile was a sign that she wasn't happy at all and was ready to murder, whoever annoyed her. Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on the view – it was against the law to kill someone and her boss might freak out, when she killed a costumer, thus she stayed put. Why had this man to show up right at this moment, when the drama was getting so intense? She was missing the best part of the show just because of him! How dare he! When she finally met eye to eye with the costumer her smile wavered. The man in front of her had covered half of his face, which gave his eyes more focus, since they were more or less the only thing one could concentrated on to identify him – his eyes were enough to know, who he was, because there weren't that many people out there that had two different sized eyes and even less visited the Happy Internet Café. One day she had seen him without his "disguise" and what she saw wasn't bad. He wasn't the handsomest, but he definitely was better than the average – but still far away from her beloved Kaikai. No one was as handsome as him! No one! In truth, if it weren't for those mismatched eyes – one big and one normal – the man would look quite appealing to the eyes, however the way it was there was always something that seemed off – though, even with two normal eyes the man wouldn't be as handsome as Zhou Zekai.  
Her smile got softer. She knew the man and she also knew that if he had known that she was busy watching an important drama, he wouldn't have disturbed her. Without much of a conversation she opened a computer station for him. It was the same station she always assigned to him. Since the first day he came into this humble little Internet Café – that wasn't so small anymore – he always was in area A – an area in the darkest corner of the Internet Café that always looked dirty despite being cleaned as much and throughout as the rest of Happy. When he first come he even asked for a station that was in a corner, a bit off from everyone else. Back then she hadn't asked why or put much thought into it – strange people existed and she didn't have to understand them –, but over the time her curiosity grow stronger and stronger – why was he not ordering a private room on the second floor, when he wanted to be alone, when he didn't want to be annoyed or disturbed by others? She didn't ask. As the man named Wang Jiexi walked towards area A, she watched him carefully, as if she would get any answers to the question just by staring at his back – she had to admit that he had a nice clothing style, it stood out in this mostly by university students occupied place; he as a whole stood out.

Back to her drama, she tried to concentrated once more, but missing such an important part was frustrating. Now she had to watch the episode again, when it was available online for re-watching. Well, she had plenty of time until her shift would end, so she could watch a few more episodes and dramas. Yet, now that Wang Jiexi was here, she knew that soon her peace would be interrupted again. It was this time of the month again.  
Just as she was about to complain about her questionable luck, a strange and undefinable feeling arose in her. It was that feeling one had, when something bad was about to happened or when being watched without knowing.  
Had she missed a costumer? No, no one stood in front of the reception desk and between the time Wang Jiexi left and her sitting down wasn't enough time to sneak in, right? Maybe her boss was behind her? She slowly turned around, but all she saw was that no one stood behind her. No one to the left. No one to the right. Above? Was someone above her? As silly as this thought may sound she didn't dare to neglect it and looked up at the ceiling. Still no one. Beneath her? No. So, what if the costumer was just very small and she overlooked him? She stood up from her chair and lent over the reception desk to see if there was a costumer, but once more no one was there. When no one was around that meant she wasn't watched by someone, but that something bad was about to happen. It was like in her dramas where the male protagonist had a feeling that something was off and only because he followed said feeling was he able to rescue the female lead from a dangerous situation – than they would kiss and be happy ever after. Unfortunately, she neither was the male lead in a drama nor did she have a significant other that she needed to protect – or was this a sign that something bad was about to happen to her beloved Kaikai? But how was she supposed to help him? They lived in two different worlds and she didn't even know where he was right now. Theoretically, she could send him a message on Weibo, hoping that he would see it and act accordingly, which brought up another problem – she didn't know if he really was the one that had to face something bad soon or not and she didn't know what it actually was that was supposed to happen.  
Before she could sit down again and check out Zhou Zekai's Weibo – maybe he had posted something that could give her a clue –, she saw a suspicious shadow at the entrance. Had that been her imagination? Was that shadow maybe the reason for her uneasiness? Outside stood a man – trying to hide behind a pillar of the building – covered from head to toe. He wore a long-sleeved sweater, a scarf and sunglasses – it was July, it was hot! Suspicious! Very suspicious!  
After watching the back and forth of the man she sat down with a heavy sigh. It was this time of the month, so she should have expected that this would happen again. Her uneasiness faded away.

Ten minutes after spotting the man outside, said man finally made it inside and to the front desk. Next to him was another man, who was clothed according to the heat – a simply blue shirt, 7/8 trousers, sneakers and sunglasses, which he took off when he entered the Internet Café. Of course, she also knew who those two were. The one clothed like it was the deepest winter was called Huang Shaotian and the other one was Yu Wenzhou. Like Wang Jiexi they always got a station in area A, because they also wanted a quiet place – which wasn't so quiet anymore as soon as Huang Shaotian showed up. Seriously that guy talked more than all of the friends combined and she had a lot of friends, who loved to talk!  
The two walked away. Huang Shaotian in his obvious and suspiciously "I'm not suspicious" way and Yu Wenzhou in his silent and perfectly normal way.  
As soon as those two were out of sight, she stole a glance at the clock. There were still so many hours of her shift left – more than enough for the other four to appear. She wanted to go home, but she couldn't, thus she stayed and watched another Kdrama, until another shadow appeared.  
Said shadow was large and sent a chill down her spine. Was she in danger? Was her boss angry with her? No, Chen Guo wasn't that large and she would have started to shout by now, in case it was her. Was the end of the world near? Was she going to die? If yes, would it be possible to watch this episode until the end, before dying? She needed to know, whether the male lead would finally confess or not. This was really important!  
Slowly and full of fear she looked up from her computer to take care of the shadow, which probably and hopefully belong to a costumer. It took her all of her self-control and composure to not jump out of her chair and instinctively throw her wallet at the person in front of the reception. It was this time of the month and so it was also the time for the visit of the friendly neighborhood mafia boss – friendly only because he had never harmed her, who knew how he was towards other people that had to deal with him on a daily basis and even less did she want to know, how he acted around people he disliked.

Just like Wang Jiexi, Yu Wenzhou and Huang Shaotian this man got his usual station in area A. Differently than with those other three it took her a bit longer to register him, since her hands were slightly shaking. Some of the other costumers, who went to the restroom or walked around for another reason, only stared at the tall man, but no one dared to approach him – well, they also had no reason to do so. After everything was set up, she gave Han Wenqing his ID back and let out a sigh of relief when he left for his station, only to almost jump out of her chair and scream once more. Today her self-control was challenged multiple times.  
Similar to Huang Shaotian and Yu Wenzhou, Han Wenqing came with another man. Said man was Zhang Xinjie. He was an extremely proper person and stuck to his daily schedule as if even the slightest deviation could cause him to die, but he also was very well-mannered. Nowadays it was hard to come by such a person. Unfortunately, due to his good manners, she had overlooked him – she also hadn't paid much attention to anything or anyone besides Han Wenqing, since she feared he might be offered by it and end her life. Yes, she greatly feared for her life, although there never had been any reason to. Han Wenqing may look intimidating, but he wasn't a bad guy – just a bit rough, just a bit harsh. Zhang Xinjie was quite different with his plain looks. Put him in a crowd and it was impossible to find him anymore – he looked like any ordinary person out there. With an indifferent expression he looked at her. Thanks to all the times she already had to deal with that weird bunch, she knew that his expression wasn't indifferent at all. He was silently judging her – she was too slow and he had a schedule to maintain! Hurriedly she took Zhang Xinjie's ID and opened a station next to Han Wenqing in area A as usual. There were still so many hour left for the other two to appear. She was excited to meet her beloved Kaikai – what normal person could say they had the chance to interact with Zhou Zekai? She lived the dream of many fans!

For now it was drama time again. Episode after episode, cheesy line after cheesy line, confession after confession, misunderstanding after misunderstanding, the same old plot just with different people and settings over and over again. No matter how predictable the plot was, she was always surprised by all the twists and turns in the story. Maybe she subconsciously hoped that something new and different, unexpected would happen, but got surprised by how the same old shit happened every damn time.  
During this time some new costumers came, while other left. The end of her shift grow closer and closer, but still wasn't near. Around half past nine her Kdrama marathon was interrupted once more. This time, however, she wasn't annoyed or angry. To the contrary she was very excited and happy. Her dream man stood at the reception desk, silently looking at her like a lost puppy. So cute! His cuteness was another challenge for her self-control. Staying calm or jump up and squeal? A hard decision. In the end, she was able to control herself and stayed composed. It would be extremely inconvenient for her beloved Kaikai, when he was recognized by his fans. Maybe she didn't know much about Glory – the game he was playing professionally and which caused him to gain so much fame –, but she knew enough about fangirls and celebrities. As professional gamer it was dangerous to come to an Internet Café, especially when it was an Internet Café right across of an eSports club. Zhou Zekai would probably not be harmed by the fans of Excellent Era, who were the majority of the costumers, but they wouldn't be all too friendly either – Han Wenqing would have it way harder, if he wouldn't look like some kind of street Mafiosi.  
Zhou Zekai was greeted with her brightest smile and sweetest voice. He felt highly uncomfortable, but stayed silent, which was not surprising considering his quiet and shy nature. Registering for a computer never took long, so he only had to endure – survive – for about a minute or so. He was used to that. Because of his statues as captain of team Samsara and the current so called number 1 in Glory, he had to deal a lot with reporters or even fans and their questions. There was no word that could descript how much he wanted to run away from those questions – not because the questions were so horrible, but because he felt so uncomfortable being questioned and surrounded. Fortunately, the young woman at the reception desk only wanted to know, if he wanted a computer – which was kind of stupid question, since this was an Internet Café and who would go in there without wanting to use a computer? Of course, he already knew that she also was one of his fans – their first encounter had almost called disaster upon Zhou Zekai. Thankfully back then Jiang Botao had been with him and could stop her from causing a scene. Afterwards she always had herself under control and never bothered him with photos or autographs.

One's fortune was another one's misfortune. While Zhou Zekai was happy that he could leave after a minute or so, she was sad. Although she may not be able to hold a conversation with her idol, just being so close with him was enough for her. With a kind "if you need something, don't hesitate to call me" she send him off. It was normal for the costumers to call the reception desk, when they needed something – like when their computer didn't work or when they wanted to order something to drink or eat. However, usually she didn't explicitly tell the costumers to do so. Zhou Zekai was the exception, since she wanted to interact with him. Until know he never had ordered anything. He came to get his computer and after some hours he paid and left.  
In truth it wasn't like he didn't order anything at all, it was just that some else did the ordering. Zhang Xinjie was against everyone making orders all the time, since it would bother the people on shift. To make it easier for those people, he suggested to make one order for everyone. This way not only to not interrupt the manager on duty all the time, it was also less annoying for him, when he wasn't disturbed by the others making orders – with others he meant Huang Shaotian – and the manger coming over to bring the order. Because it had been his suggestion it was also him, who made the orders.  
On the bright side, when she was still on her shift, when Zhang Xinjie made his order, she still could see her idol for a few more seconds, since it was her, who got the order and then delivered it. Being a fangirl was hard, especially when one was so close to one's idol, but still not able to reach them.

The night shift started at eleven p.m. Until then she had to endure. There was still one person missing, though said person wasn't anything special or so. He was one of the normal all-night costumers. The only not so normal thing about him was his clothing style. He always came dressed in a suit, so she assumed he directly went to the Internet Café after work – who would run around in a suit in private? Everything else was just the same. He came when it was time to change shifts and left when it was time to change again, thus he stayed from eleven p.m. until seven a.m.  
When did this person sleep?  
On the bright side again, she could now watch her show without any big interruption. It was even enough time to finish one of her shorter dramas. The male main character looked a lot like Zhou Zekai, which was the sole reason for her to even click on the show, since the summary of said drama actually sounded extremely boring. In the end she loved it. It was so cute! While the plot was filled with clichés, the two main characters were surprisingly likeable and thought-out. Maybe this was due to the actors' great performance? Or maybe her standards were quite low? After the show finished, she immediately searched through the internet, what others thought about it – of course, there were a lot of fanfiction and fanarts. If it weren't for the shift change, she would have spent a little bit more time with going through all the great stories and pictures. Sometimes she wished, she could write or draw herself. She had more than enough ideas, she just lacked the skills to present them to the world.

Since the price for using the computer during the night shift was different then the price for the evening shift, even those who wanted to stay had to come to the reception and pay for the already used hours. Shift changes were always the busiest times.  
Her questionable luck was still with her, thus the last one of the monthly visiting club – as she called it – came into the Internet Café. At first she didn't see him, because he was just one among the crowd of people that wanted to pay their bills, however after taking care of quite a number of costumers, she could see him – wearing his suit as always with a cigarette between his lips. If her boss Chen Guo saw this, she was sure her boss would freak out. The internet café had a smoking section, but outside of said section smoking was prohibited. Well, it had never bother the man.  
Upon seeing him she decided to work a bit faster, hoping that in that way he might end up with her colleague. Yet, after a few costumers, she realized her flawed thinking was and then tried to work slower. However, she was already used to her job – honestly, there was much complexity behind it – so even her "slow" was kind of fast and her with previously increased speed her fate was already determined.  
To others it might seem strange that she was so stressed out by the little group that always came around the same time each month – she had already gotten used to Wang Jiexi's uneven yes, was used to Huang Shaotian's never-ending chatter and Yu Wenzhou's silent and mature attitude in comparison, not so used to Han Wenqing's scary looks, but more used to Zhang Xinjie's hardly noticeable presence, when together with his captain, and so totally used to little Zhou's shyness and cuteness –, but for her it wasn't strange at all. The problem wasn't the personality of those people or how they acted – they were just like any other ordinary costumer – depending on how one defined "ordinary". The problem was the last one that come, not because of what he said or done, just his mere presence brought her mood down. Something about that guy was so unbelievable annoying, just seeing his face made her angry, hearing his voice made her want to punch him. She had to admit that she was surprised that this guy didn't end up in the hospital all the time – he certainly must anger many people and therewith get into a lot of trouble.

What she didn't know was that the man really got into a lot of trouble and that there were indeed a lot of people that wanted to beat him up. Luckily most of those people only existed inside Glory or interacted with him in Glory; there were also a bunch of people outside of the game that wanted to give him a good beating – one of them being his own brother. Those outside of the game were usually people he met due to his work, but since this was all business they wouldn't dare to really beat him up. It would cause them more trouble than it was actually worth. Luck was one of the man's greatest skills.

When it finally was his turn at the reception, he handed his ID over without saying much. She took his ID and assigned him his usually spot without saying much. The interaction was short and without many words, yet she suddenly was pissed off. That guy would make a splendid villain! Everyone would immediately hate him and cheer for the protagonist.

Ye Xiu, the last in the once a monthly meeting group, was totally unaware of her thoughts and even if he had known them, he wouldn't have cared. All that matter to him was Glory. After a long day at work – dealing with his family and co-workers and a bunch of old, greedy "business men" – he only wanted to relax. It was a shame that due to his work, he barely had any time to play games. Most of the time he was too tired to play when he came home. Other times he had so much important and urgent work that he even took some of it home. Being a teenager had been so much easier! Back then he could play Glory all the time, as long as his homework was done. He had put a lot of effort into his studies, so he could finish his assigned work fast, thus had more time to play games. His parents didn't care that he only studies so much, because of his strong love for playing videogames. As long as he had good marks nothing else mattered to them. It was really annoying that he couldn't do the same with his current paperwork.  
With a sigh Ye Xiu sat down at his usual spot in the smoking area. During the night this section was even emptier than the non-smoking area, yet it never seemed like that at all, because of all the smoke – Ye Xiu was the main culprit, since his smoking was a bit over the top.  
Without further ado, Ye Xiu lit his cigarette and logged into Glory. At almost the very same second he finished logging in, he received a message through the internal message system. More followed shortly after. On a first impulse he wanted to ignore the messages – there was only one person in the world that could send so many messages in such a short amount of time. So when he saw who actually had sent him a message, he was more than just surprised. Yes, the person, who he had accused of being responsible for the flood of messages, had indeed sent him billionth of messages, but the first one, who had wrote him, was someone different. It was just a small difference – just a second or so – but it was still the first!  
To outsides it may seem like this wasn't a big deal, but for those involved, for those, who understood, it was a huge deal! It had to be known that Huang Shaotian was not only a chatterbox, his fingers were just as fast and nimble and his mouth. In contrast to that stood his captain Yu Wenzhou, who may not be the slowest pro player in general, but definitely the slowest god level player. Yet said slowest god level player just beat Huang Shaotian in a match of speed. Surprisingly it had been Ye Wenzhou's Swoksaar that sent the first message to Ye Xiu's One Autumn Leaf. Huang Shaotian's Troubling Rain got second place.  
Teasing was one of Ye Xiu's specialties, so he teased Troubling Rain with this fact. At such a moment he wished he could see the other one's face. It must be quite humiliating to be beat by someone as slow as Yu Wenzhou.

The messages were all quite similar. After Swoksaar and Troubling Rain more people greeted him and asked him for a match.  
Ye Xiu was certain that Swoksaar had prepared the message beforehand and pressed enter the very second One Autumn Leaf was displayed as online. Huang Shaotian had properly been the second one to notice, followed by Zhou Zekai and Wang Jiexi. Han Wenqing and Zhang Xinjie were the last to greet him. Differently than the others Zhang Xinjie only greeted Ye Xiu. His character Immovable Rock was a Cleric, thus not a character to fight one-on-one battles. Their job was to heal their teammates, therefore their battle skills were few and their strength was low. Ye Xiu was certain that Zhang Xinjie had no troubles fighting normal players one-on-one, even against those so called expert he shouldn't have too much trouble, however against someone of the same skill level it would be hard to tell, which one would win or lose. Even Ye Xiu himself wouldn't dare to say that he and his Battle Mage One Autumn Leaf had hundred percent chance to always win. One Autumn Leaf would properly win more battles than he would lose.

In the end, One Autumn Leaf still ended up in the arena, fighting the Warlock Swoksaar, while being watch by Desert Dust, Immovable Rock, Cloud Piercer, Vaccaria and Troubling Rain. In the arena chat the spectators discussed the ongoing match, though it was hard to discuss anything with Huang Shaotian's constant messages, which caused Zhang Xinjie and Wang Jiexi to talk in private. Zhou Zekai never said much anyway, hence he didn't participated in the discussion in the first place – unfortunately, he didn't have Jiang Botao with him – and Han Wenqing had Zhang Xinjie to take part in a useful discussion, so he also stayed silent and later looked at his partner's screen from time to time to see what the other one was talking about with Wang Jiexi.

Throughout Glory Ye Xiu and his One Autumn Leaf were known as the battle god. At some point discussions about him weren't about Battle Mage One Autumn leaf anymore, but about the Battle God. It was a bit strange and even made Ye Xiu feel somewhat uncomfortable, when people started to worship him. Someone had even asked him for an autograph once. His fame was on par with that of a pro player, since he was someone from the first server, someone who had played Glory since the start and someone who caused havoc wherever he went inside the Heavenly Domain. It was impossible for a player not have heard of the famous battle god – except said someone was completely knew to the game.  
His fame was not just show, Ye Xiu's skill were indeed also on par with many pro players – some of his fans even dared to say he would be a god, if he had entered the professional alliance. The little group of pro players that met with him every month wouldn't deny such a statement. How many times had Ye Xiu already won against them? How many times had he lost? Too many times. Not so often.

Nevertheless, once every month they gathered together and had a little training session with Ye Xiu – one may also call it an onesided slaughter most of the times.


End file.
